My first whining thread - Drought Hatred

[Biggsly]

Here is Lake Overholser. It is sad, to say the least.

 

[RidgeHunter]

At one point, the fire you took a picture of was 6 miles deep and 16 miles wide with flames hundreds (yes hundreds) of feet high. There was one video a co-worker and I were watching, and it was downright freaky. You could see flames coming out of that big cloud you posted a picture of, so big it just made the sky look like it was on fire.

Yeah, I saw some of those videos and pictures. I think it was worse than any fire footage from the mountain states I've seen. Totally surreal. YouTube Bastrop Fires for anyone that hasn't seen it.

Yet all we hear about on the news is flooding in the east. The poor dears, we should all be that lucky. If you live in a flood plain, you should expect to get flooded out every so often. That is what insurance is for. I will take a flood any day over a drought.

Yeah, and Irene coverage 24/7. Yeah, I guess it's something people don't notice if they are not outdoorspeople or in agriculture. Lord knows if we get snow on the ground for 3 days people act as if the world is coming to an end.

Saw a convoy of semi trucks loaded down with round bales heading southbound towards Texas on 75 the other day. Must have been two dozen trucks.

Most of my complaints about it are petty and selfish, but I'm a petty, selfish person. I sat around in the A/C on all the 9,000 degree days thinking "when September gets here, I can do things!" Now it's here, and it has cooled off, but the lack of water is still bumming me out. Reminds me of the Twilight Zone episode called "Time Enough at Last" where a bookworm survives a nuclear war and finds himself with all the time he never had to read all the books he ever wanted, then he breaks his glasses and can't read any of them. Might be cool enough to do my favorite things, but no water to do them.

Yeah, the further south and west you go the worse it gets. But I've never seen Arkansas like this; the locals I've talked to are saying you have to go back 30 years to get close. Wild to think they had record flooding this spring and now hardly hardly a trickle on anything but tailwaters. La Nina is a *****, man. When you're used to getting a good amount of rain it really seems weird when it stops.

[Broken External Image]

http://www.srh.noaa.gov/oun/?n=climate-drought

 

[RidgeHunter]

Statewide we are at our 2nd driest period since 1935-36. Kicker is were are only 0.03 inches away from tying that. 3 hundredths of an inch, man. We've had 55% of our normal rainfall.

I don't think it can be overstated how bad this is. 0.03 inches away from the freaking Dust Bowl. Not only that, many regions on Oklahoma are drier than they've been since rainfall records have been kept.

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http://climate.ok.gov/index.php/climate/category/drought_wildfire

 

[Lone Wolf '49]

It is bad. In the last two weeks I have traveled to parts of southwest OK. South Canadian is dry both where it hits I44 and I40. I went to Lake Creek north of Granite to check out a field on the south side of the North Fork of the Red River due north of Lake Creek which is north of Granite. The North Fork which feeds Lake Lugert is dry as a bone. If you receive the weekly Wildlife Dept sends out and lists the lake levels do you notice that every year Lake Lugert is the lowest in the state and right now it is 30 feet below or close to it. Only saving grace was on the North Fork I saw four bucks and a doe in a group at sunrise. Glad you guys up north, Dennis and all have had the rain. I am hungry for dove right now.

 

[RidgeHunter]

I'm afraid early deer season might be a bit slow for me. On a normal year you can hardly take a step on out place without seeing water. Usually crystal clear, cool, flowing water. Not a drop this year. I imagine the deer aren't going to venture far from the big private lakes on the neighbors property very much, at least until the rut comes. Messing with my deer season is like taking the meds away from a nutcase. The rest of the year is just something I have to live through to get to October and November. As long as it's not hot all fall I guess I can deal.

 

[Lone Wolf '49]

Just wandering if any on here remembers the wheat field fires we had in southwest OK in the last half of the fifties? I don't remember a drought but many fires after the wheat was cut or most of it back then and with what little equipment they had then they did contain them. Of course, the strains of wheat back then were much taller than what we have now. Just a thought, thanks.

 

[BadgeBunny]

I was a wee thing in the last half of the fifties. GC wasn't even a gleam in his daddy's eye yet.

Man ... LW ... you're O.L.D.

 

[Lone Wolf '49]

I was a wee thing in the last half of the fifties. GC wasn't even a gleam in his daddy's eye yet.

Man ... LW ... you're O.L.D.

And I won't be paying for Obummer's, well I want to say mistakes, but by his ideals, they are not mistakes, it is wanting to do what HE wants to do so I shall leave it at that. Good night.

 

[ignerntbend]

Just wandering if any on here remembers the wheat field fires we had in southwest OK in the last half of the fifties? I don't remember a drought but many fires after the wheat was cut or most of it back then and with what little equipment they had then they did contain them. Of course, the strains of wheat back then were much taller than what we have now. Just a thought, thanks.

A bunch of that stuff still takes place, although not this year. A few big wheat farmers think they save plowing time by burning stubble.
It's an unsound practice for all sorts of reasons. That stubble needs to be plowed back under. The earth wants something back to build soil with.